We're here! The line is already mad long, but we must admit, it feels great to have E3 back at the convention center.

9:47 am PT: Alright! We're waiting in line for the MS press conference! We're feigning excitement through gratuitous use of exclamation points!

9:49 am PT: An MS representative asks us if we have our "passports." We assume she means our press badges and isn't about to whisk us to another country. Mind you, we've always wanted to see the Swiss Alps. Oh, and the chocolate and... okay, we're getting sidetracked.

9:51 am PT: So, if you were trying to spot us in this line, we'd be the ones holding laptops in one hand and typing with the other. We keep bumping into the person in front when the line comes to a halt, what with our eyes glued to our screens. Also, person behind us. STOP READING OVER OUR SHOULDERS. ALSO, YOU SMELL BAD.

We know you're all dying to find out Engadget and Joystiq's annual joint-live coverage schedule for the Big Three keynotes, so here's what you need to know. It all starts later this morning with Microsoft's Xbox 360 press conference -- but you'll be waiting until Tuesday for the big N and Sony to kick off. Links and approximate times we'll get started are listed below, we'll see you back shortly live from E3!

Kaz Hirai has come to the Tokyo Game Show bearing good news indeed: Sony's finally putting out a SIXAXIS with rumble, the DualShock 3. The controller will look exactly like the SIXAXIS, and is going to be hitting Japan this November, and North America and Europe in spring 2008. A few games in development have the function already, including Metal Gear Solid 4, and existing games can be updated with rumble over the PlayStation Network. Of course, the beans were spilled by EA earlier today, and Kaz says Sony let developers know about the controller as soon as it was decided upon, which would explain all the other leaks over the year. What Sony has constantly described as a technical difficulty stemming from the motion sensitivity of the controller has apparently been overcome, but it's still hard not to pin it all on that Immersion lawsuit no matter how much spin Sony puts on things. There's no word on price for the DualShock 3.

We got another opportunity to catch up with our pal Peter Moore, the man at the top of the heap over at Microsof'ts Xbox division. We chatted it up about the usual stuff: games, Microsoft's E3 presence, the 360 warranty debacle, and what's up with all the special edition stuff Microsoft keeps pumping out.

So, any new tattoos this year?

None. Out of limbs. You were there the other night...

What, no chest piece? You've got legs, too.

No, my PR handlers would -- well, I'm game for a lot of stuff, and then they go, "No, I don't think so."

You could do full sleeves, the back...

I think the next thing would be what's (horribly) called a tramp stamp... [laughter]

So no tramp stamp for Peter Moore, unfortunately. So last time when we spoke with you last year, your competition hadn't launched yet. So you guys were kind of in a unique position to be the first next gen company out of the gate. Your system, you know you have a lot of second wave titles showing up. Even though the Wii was certainly a phenomenon at last year's E3, there was a lot of excitement about the Xbox. So now here we are, a little over a year later obviously and your competition has launched, in your own press conference your materials show that the Wii is -- not by much -- outselling the 360.

Numbers don't lie!

So where do you think the 360 stands in terms of your competition? You have the Wii that's actually outselling the 360 and you have the PlayStation 3 which obviously isn't although, sales have increased after the price drop. So where...

Apparently they have. I haven't seen any independent data that supports that.

We got a rare chance to sit down and talk shop with recently-named Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. President Kaz Hirai, and his US successor, Jack Tretton. These two had a lot to say, and we were more than happy to let them talk about where the PS3's going in terms of hardware, software, and services, why Sony's E3 presence this year is so radically different than last year, even a little bit about how things have been at PlayStation HQ post-Kutaragi -- check it out!

So out of all the three press conferences we've been writing up, we're giving each one a grade based on a new highly scientific Mega Man ranking system. Sony is our last one, but chronologically so we haven't gotten there yet. But this press conference had a much different tone then let's say last year's E3 press conference. How much did you guys look at last year's, how should we say, performance, and decide that you needed to do something different? What kind of decision making process was that?

Jack: Well obviously I was not as intimately involved in planning last year's press conference as I was in this one, but it's funny now that you look at that perspective and you see some of the other press conferences and how people are conducting themselves. I think companies are very proud of their success and they want to tell everybody how successful you are. But what you realize is that everybody already knows that and no one really cares. They want to know how you are going to be successful going forward. And so we've certainly taken our fair share of heat about, you know, the performance of PlayStation 3 in the first six to eight months, and I guess we wanted to focus our message on really telling you why PlayStation 3 is going to be successful going forward.

And its all about content, its about games, and I think going through that experience, you know, the light bulb goes off, and you go oh, wait a minute, its really all about the content and what we're going to do going forward to keep our platforms relevant. Its not about what we did 10 years ago, its not about how many units we've sold here or there. So clearly I think for points of reference and perspective we wanted to point some things out that we really wanted that press conference geared towards why people are going to want to buy games and buy our platforms and that was kind of the theme and the central message. I give Dave [Karraker, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, SCEA] a lot of credit for building off of that theme and coordinating tremendous amounts of presentations and content through the whole thing. But hopefully we've stayed on message and we've gotten the point across.

So why no word about rumble?

Jack: Well, I guess at this point the SIXAXIS controller is something that we're comfortable with and we've certainly settled our differences with Immersion. Is it something that can happen down the road? Absolutely. But the bottom line is we haven't made that decision and we didn't have anything to announce or introduce. Will we down the road? Possibly, but it's unbeknownst to me if we have a rumble controller coming out.

On the last day of E3 we got to sit down with Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Affairs. We still had a lot of questions for her to field after interviewing Miyamoto-san the day before, specifically regarding the naming of the Wii (yeah, we had to ask), what Nintendo's online strategy actually is, what they're doing with launching first party titles like Smash Bros. on the Wii, why the GameCube was suspiciously absent this year, and exactly where homebrew gaming fits into the final equation.

So I guess we should get started. Thank you very much for meeting us. Everybody here has this badge that says "what's your brain age?" so I'm curious to know what your brain age is.

Oh my gosh, I haven't played in a good couple of weeks. I guess down to 30 or so.

Really?

Yeah, I need to work on it. Our President [Satoru Iwata] is very proud that his is 20.

Today is the last day, everything is pretty much behind us. How do you guys think you fared?

Even better than we thought. I think we were all really excited coming in, with pretty much trying to say to people, "It's not about what you see, you have to try it," which is why our theme is "playing equals believing." I think you really have to try and take the products for a ride yourself. And that people are embracing that and lining up at record lengths and number of hours and really enjoying it -- saying it was worth the wait is fantastic.

One of the things I've been hearing from a lot of people in the industry is they felt that Sony really fell flat this year, and I was curious to know what you think they could have done better.

That's a hard one. I have my own personal rule: I don't hold a media briefing that's over 60 minutes. I think it's really hard to have a captive audience be engaged that long. Even in school, I could have had the most stimulating presentation from a teacher and an hour starts to get a long time. That's probably one thing I would do differently. But their product line is what their product line is and their approach is their approach, so what I would do differently is really hard for me to say because we're over here doing something really different and it feels really great. I think being innovative, at least for us, is exciting.

When we found out Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to give us a second round to ask him about the latest in the world of Nintendo here at E3, I found that same inner-child fanboy Peter reminisced about when we last interviewed him start to emerge. Suddenly I wanted to play all those games I grew up on again, but we had to know how he thinks the Wii is going to change the future of gaming. Vlad Cole and I somehow managed to pull ourselves together long enough to ask him about whether the sedentary gaming world is ready for full-body frenetic gameplay, how he's influencing the next generation of Nintendo games and game designers, the media agendas of the 360 and PlayStation 3, and even a little on HD gaming.

So, thank you very much for meeting with us, I really appreciate it. The Wii represents a major step forward for Nintendo in terms of functionality and capabilities. One of the things we're really curious to know is what Wii is going to enable you as a game maker to create that you've never been able to create before.

Well, I think the greatest strength of the Wii is that it allows you to create games that are very intuitive and very easy to pick up and play, such that people who've never played a video game before can easily pick up the controller and start playing. And that's kind of the concept behind the games like Tennis and Golf and Baseball and the Wii Sports Series, and these are really kind of the very basic games that we're looking at doing.

And then of course thinking about the types of games that the gamers have come to know and play over the years, the unique features of the Wii controller, such as the direct pointing device on the Wii Remote will allow gamers to now more directly interact with the types of game screens that they've seen, where they're pointing directly at a place on screen to interact with it.

Is there a type of game that even now you still can't or for whatever reason create?

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I don't really have any ideas that stew in my brain for long periods of time. I really just focus on what I'm working on at the moment.

The one thing that I have been thinking about for a long time is this problem we've had with 3D games, where as we've been making 3D games, 3D worlds and the control schemes have becomes so complicated. People who don't play games can't easily jump into those interactive worlds and experience them. And I think we've been able to overcome some of that difficulty with the functionality of the Wii controller. So now as we go forward and create software I have to continue to think of ideas of how to take advantage of that to overcome that barrier.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>DSE3e32006interviewmiyamotonintendoshigeru miyamotoShigeruMiyamotowiiThu, 11 May 2006 20:08:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-nintendos-wii-e3-event/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-nintendos-wii-e3-event/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-nintendos-wii-e3-event/#comments12:15 am - We're all seated and situated. The theater is huge with three mezzanines and 3,400 seat capacity.

12:17 am - We're sitting in the Kodak theater waiting for the press corps, VIPs, and assorted industry folk to file in, ever so slowly. Pictochat sessions are starting to fill up as people take their seats and whip out their portables. The announcer just told us to turn off all wireless and bluetooth devices before the presentation begins -- could that be so that our bluetooth doesn't interfere with the Wii's wireless capabilities? Sounds like a hint to us.

Still waiting in line. We are still making our way over, stay tuned ...

4:36 - The line is moving. According to EuroGamer, Hideo Kojima is "stuck in the queue." Should have something for ya soon ...

4:42 - We are sitting down, getting ready to go.

4:49 - Everyone's still filing into Stage 15 on the Sony backlot. Everyone's expectant and the mood is generally upbeat. The house lights are on full, so it'll still be a few minutes before anything official starts. In the background, Sony's been playing some hardcore gangsta rap: we note this because Nintendo would never, ever play that music. The rap song (which we failed to identify) was followed by Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean." The music is eclectic, we're hoping the games line up is similarly so.

Alright everybody, we're here live at Sony Pictures in Culver City for their big PlayStation 3 E3 event which will get underway in just another 45 minutes. Mainly it's just people kicking it outside right now having a stiff drink before they enter the theater to get the latest updates on the PS3's delays launch plans. They were handing out MemorySticks at the door with PSP updates (we haven't applied ours yet -- ever hear of a thing called homebrews, Sony?), and we were told we should bring ours along to check out its integration with their new console. Stay tuned!

While no one was looking last week at Xbox HQ we snuck
into J's office to rummage through his trash for information on the 3rd generation Xbox - instead we wound up swiping
his personal 360. The best part was when we ganked it from his desk to take some pictures of the thing his assistant
said in a very loving, motherly voice, "Oh, I see J's been working on it some more." Yeah, you could say that.

So if you hadn't noticed, Peter and I were in Seattle last
week - one of the things we were treated to for driving out to Redmond was an all-access tour of the Xbox
facilities, courtesy of our main man, Major Nelson. See if you can notice which color plays a central role in the
interior design theme of the facilities. Interesting side note: Xbox HQ is off-site from Microsoft's main campus in
Redmond - apparently they wanted Xbox to function as its own independent creative unit apart from regular Microsoft
operations. Click on for the full tour!

Sega's not flapping their yapper so far as we can tell, but German gaming site Gamefront.de is claiming they're
going to be re-releasing the frickin' Dreamcast bundled with Radilgy and some limited edition telephone card or
something. But our wish come true from the Ghost of Hackable Consoles Past will probably be Japan-only though,
distributed through Sega Direct for ¥10,000 (about $83 US) - still, could this be the triumphant return of Sega
hardware, even if only just nostalgia-gear? Apparently we'll find out February 16th (or sooner).

In its latest port to, um, RC, real PacMan does lack a certain immediacy of its console predecessors. But damned if
the Man doesn't actually eat those power pellets, and damned if our wish list this year doesn't just keep getting
longer and longer.

Over a long enough period of time Pong mightwell bere-visioned into just about anything, but our new
favorite to date is the Pong clock. It plays a random game of Pong that goes on for 24 hours at a time - right side
wins every minute, left side wins every hour. We're scratching everything else off our list this year - this is the
only thing we want.

Sure, if your Xbox 360 is crashing you could call up
Microsoft tech support and get your new toy repaired or replaced - or you could take design flaws matters into
your own hands and source out the root of the problem. And according to one Gamespot forumsgoer, apparently what's
causing these overheating Xbox 360 crashes isn't the Xbox itself, but rather that monstrous power supply. So what's a
gamer to do? Increase the airflow over the thing by getting it up off the floor, and suspending it in the air with
string - or if you're not feeling like making a trapeze act out out of the thing, stick it on an open box so it can
better emanate heat. Apparently this has been doing some good, but hey, remember that if it can't sit on the ground as
intended, it's defective, so make sure you call 'em up and get it sorted!

We're going to have to try our damnedest to resist dangling these speakers from the ceiling and jumping up to hit
them in the hopes of flipping all our enemies on their backs, or obtaining a fire flower or 1-up mushroom. (We hear we
only get one life in this game anyway.)

Not so sure about you, but this thing looks pretty much like an officially official Sony-made PSP headset to us. The
first of what we hope will be many Sony-made
PSP accessories to be released this
holiday season - the PSP Giga Pack just isn't quite
sitting right with us right now as their sole offering. Apparently this bad boy'll ship the 5th of November, and will
run you up $19.99.

We've plenty discussed Xbox 360 backward compatibility issues over the last few months, but we've nary addressed
what's in store for Sony's PlayStation 3. Maybe it was the PlayStation 2's recent
difficulties in playing old (and even new) games that
re-prompted the question, but it's almost like people have been taking it for granted that the PS3 would be able to
play PS2 games-especially after precedent was set by having the PS2 play original PlayStation games and they ran their
it's-gonna-be-backwards-compatible E3 launch in spite of Microsoft's then-soft stance on the issue. But after
Sony's recent PS2 debacle overseas, it was reported that Sony spokesperson Reiko Sakamoto told the press, "It's hard to
say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 percent backwards compatible, but as we said earlier this year we aim to make it so
as much as possible." If they're having trouble making minor changes to the PS2 and actually leaving a bit of doubt as
to whether the PS3 will work as expected, well, we're not liking the sound of this, not one bit.

We're a bit surprised we didn't get a liveblog-like stream of
emailed press releases from Tiger Telematics this morning
because today's their big day in North America. That's right, the
Gizmondo is officially on sale for $229 with
fourteen launch titles. They did roll deep by buying a full-page ad in USA Today with Verne Troyer (aka Mini Me)
shilling the Gizmondo, but we're not so sure a launch with some weak hype, obvious insecurity with their press
presence, abysmal sales abroad, and a third of a billion in
mounting debt is reason enough for Tiger's EU managing
director Carl Freer to be "extremely proud of what [they've] achieved."

You know, we're not gonna tell you how to live your life, so if you want to spend $15 of your hard earned dollars on
the "PSP Smart Charging Dock"-a PSP dock sure to
drive away all but your most loyal compatriots with its intense gaudiness-be our guest. Just don't say we didn't warn
you about sudden losses in guests at your place of residence. Unless that's what you're actually going for, anyway.

If you were ever curious as to exactly what was entailed in a PSP-bricking (for the uninitiated, that's when running
some code that kills your PSP entirely), famed antivirus company F-Secure
(who wehope youshould wellknow by now) plunked down the $250 to do an on-camera
bricking, for, um, educational purposes. It's not pretty. In fact, you may want to shield their eyes if you've got
children (or gamers) in the room. The lesson to learn here? Always use protection, kids-never run unverified arbitrary
code.

For everyone who thought the Datel 4GB PSP drive
seemed too good (or suspect) to be true, import gaming giant Lik Sang gave it the once over after receiving a unit
before their first shipment of the devices comes in. We really like the idea of Datel selling these things as a
straight enclosure so we can roll our own drive (specifically a large capacity CF drive, for example), but make sure
you're not counting on more than 4GB of space if you're going to buy and mod it-the PSP can't address more than 4GB of
Memory Stick memory, so you can't exactly go nuts on the thing. Coming soon via LS for $200 cash money.

Oh DarkFader, you little scamp. First you whip up that
now-famous (well, not
that famous) DS bricking trojan of yours, then
apparently you get ostracized from the homebrew community for wreaking havoc on your peers' devices, and then you
apologize? Ok, fine, we'll assume it's not a disingenuous apology, but seriously, the part where you start talking
about how those who only use official Nintendo games have nothing to worry themselves about? Way to be patronizing in
your letter of apology dude.

Most businesses aren't immediately profitable, we know that. You're very lucky if your startup-especially if it's a
tech startup-isn't in the hole for a number of years even after taking off (see:
TiVo). But according to an SEC filing on the
company we love to rib, Tiger Telematics
(makers of the Gizmondo portable game system),
the company lost $11.1, $8, and then $99 million dollars in 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. Ok, so that's a pretty
steep incline in losses-more than 10x in one year?-but, man, someone must have gone to town between January and June of
this year, because their operating losses for the first half of 2005 are already at $210 million. So basically to pull
this all together: Tiger's in the hole for $328 million with a faltering business model selling a perpetually
unsuccessful console competing against the PSP and
DS-and to add insult to injury, they're
licking their wounds with a continuing series of
self-aggrandizing press releases. Seriously, do we really
have to spell this out any more?

So we were able to get our greedy little mitts on Nintendo's adorable little
Game Boy Micro a few days in advance (no pun
intended), and figured we'd share the joy of opening up a new toy with you in our grand tradition of gadget
unpacking sessions. It's a little like sneaking
downstairs to open your presents the night before Christmas, if you think about it, but a little more
anticlimactic.

Designed and engineered in Italy for, um, maximum performance, the Movetech GTC Gran Turismo Cockpit isn't exactly
anything we haven't seen before, except it won't cost you
thousands of dollars and it's a bit more on the convertible/BYO tip. As in, the thing transforms from an office chair
into a kind of oddly shaped desk to a bring-your-own steering wheel and pedals racing cockpit. Expect to drop €350
(about $425 US) on this fine Italian racer; just don't run it in reverse right out the back of your dad's garage,
ok?

It would have been a bit difficult for them to rock an
EyeToy for the PSP (though we know they did have a
camera prototype), so instead Sony took a page out of
Nintendo's book with vocal game interaction and announced the Talkman for the PSP. Available in Japan in November for
¥5,800 (about $50), it should be able to translate to understand Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean-you know, the
important languages. Seriously though, anyone else see the humor in a bird asking for the "duty-free store?" No?
Fine.

It wouldn't surprise us if any day now Sony came strolling along with a slew of new PSP accessories and peripherals,
but until we get the real deal PSP camera (or any of the
other things Sony's been talking about like a keyboard, mouse, Flash support, email client, etc.), we're gonna have to
stick with projects like PSIX. With it they've successfully connected a Sony Ericsscon P800/900/910i with a modified
data cable and run the camera on the thing, in addition to loading a rather slick looking custom desktop with audio and
video playback functions.

What, you weren't satisfied with your NES controller
optical mouse? You wanted something a little more panache, with a certain je ne sais quoi, oui? Enter the
NES TV remote. Besides, it makes a lot more sense than a mouse-hey, the NES controller belongs in your living room,
buddy. Ah, yes, janky hacks that poignantly remind us of the folly of youth. Ok, so what's next on the list, NES
controller flash audio player, NES controller cellphone, or NES controller laptop?

Exactly as we thought they would, Microsoft's announced the official base price for the Xbox 360 at $299, with a
$399 version available (no surprise there either). The
$299 version will come bare with a wired controller, while the $399 version will have a 20GB drive, wireless
controller, headset, and remote. We're still on the fence about forking the product to make it more affordable, but
hey, not our company!

Yes, it looks like one man was able to do what many could not (well, kind of): get Linux (and Windows) on the PSP.
Ok, so it's not exactly what the crew at the PSPLinux
project were aiming for since it's x86 emulated, but a PSP hacker by the name of Matan phoned in to let us know he
ported Bochs (an open-source x86 emulator) to the PSP (which runs on MIPS R4000 CPUs) and successfully tested, booted,
and ran Linux and Win95. This isn't really going to halt the PSPLinux project since they're shooting for native (not
emulated) support though, so keep on truckin' everybody, we're almost to the promised land.

It's no huge deal, come to think of it, but for those wondering exactly how Microsoft's forthcoming
Xbox 360 is going to interact with Sony's
PlayStation Portable, the answer is deceptively
simple: it's a mass-storage compliant device, after all. Which implies, of course, that the Xbox 360 will also be able
to grab and manipulate data on any USB mass-storage compliant device from its dashboard, which isn't really blowing
anyone's mind reading this, we're sure. But while we're on task here, someone care to help explain that mysterious
iPod integration they've supposedly
got cookin'?

We don't know what the deal is with the source of where image was supposedly snapped from, but apparently during a really janky lookin' Espanol Xbox 360 presentation, one slide showed off a qwerty keyboard-equipped controller. The translation, friends, is utterly shocking:

Seriously, are we wrong in saying it's hard to imagine actually using this Front Mission Online Battle Stick thingy
to play a FPS (or any kind of game for that matter)? It doesn't really help its case that it's about 80 buttons shy of
the gamer enthusiast's mouse, too. Eh, we'll try anything once.

Nyko joined the fray of PSP speaker devices with their Theater Experience, a more unusual hybrid of case, charger,
stand, and speaker setup. Not a bad system for the 80 bones they're asking, but we keep trying to think of a place we
could make use of this, and we're a hard time picturing it (no pun intended). So howsabout you think of it as a case +
battery pack with some bonus speakers just in case (also no pun intended), yeah?

We still can't figure out what it is about menial-labor simulations that's just so fun (you know how we dotcommers
long for the old days when people actually had to work), but we had to stop stop it up when we peeped
Aerosoft's train sim. Not quite as slick as the Japanese versions we've seen around and about, but it still super
reminded us of playing with a train set when we're kids. Except we never really had to worry before about hitting cars
or missing schedules on the London-Brighton Express.

As an aside, there are four channels of Nintendo DS pictochat going on. All four channels are full (16 people per
channel). Here's some of what's coming down through the pictochat wires. Some of the stuff coming through is in
Japanese, but this says it best: "I'm happy to have a seat!" (The event is standing-room only. The venue is just too
small for the size of this audience.) The fire marshall has finally thrown in his two cents. Yeah, it's that crowded.
No one is listening to the fire marshall, which could pose a problem in a couple of minutes, if, you know, the stage
bursts in flames or something. Pictochat: "Apart from Zelda, what r we here for?" The responses: "Revolution?" Uh, yeah
guys, did you get the memo?

Apparently, "we are now beginning" is actually code for "twenty minutes until we begin". You know you're at E3 when
even event scheduling is hyped. Actually, this is because of fire marshall issues here. Ok, here we
go!

Lights dimming. Game geeks cheering. "We remain all about the game. Actions speak louder than words." Saturo Iwata
comes on stage and sez: "My name is Iwata, I'm about making games, and I'm about playing games. Last night I played
super smash brothers. That's my game. I kick some ... you know what. So Reggie, I have a question for you. Who's your
daddy?" Wonderful.

"Possess. Conect. Connect." They're showing Zelda clips and the crowd roars. They'll be presenting the "first
meaningful information about the Revolution", along with DS and Zelda details. Now I know many of you walked in here
today with numbers swimming in your heads. .... We'd like to add one more number to the mix, and that number is "2", as
in two billion games. That's the number of games Nintendo has sold since we entered the business 20 years ago. .... If
you're ready to move beyond pure numbers to a place where your right brain can envision the best in innovation ....
you've come to the right place."

The word "or" does not apply to Nintendo. The word "and" is at their core. They want to include everyone. They're
talking up how Nintendo is the place where "the right game goes to play". Sound like
anyone else we know?

"Nintendo occupies a unique position in our industry. We are one of the top two game system manufacturers in the world
and one of the top two game publishers in the world. Nintendo remains first and foremost a content company. We
exist for the love of the game. We're about the levels the characters, the interface, the entertainment. We're about
reaching what's known, and going into the unknown.... Today, you'll begin to understand how our Revolution is preparing
to storm the gates. ... For 16 years Nintendo has OWNED the portable game space. We created it, and we're not moving
out."

The Big Boys are whipping it out. Reggie is comparing GBA to PS2 numbers???upward of 28 million each They're talking
about the PSP and PlayStation 2 quite some bit. They know they have to, because Sony's the biggest game in town, and
have the systems to beat right now.
Reggie is now touting Electroplankton as software that attracts people who aren't interested in games. They're showing
a clip of a guy playing around with the game; he loves it, and we will too if they'd just freaking release it worldwide
already.

"[Electroplankton] is an excellent example of software that reaches out to people who don't even consider themselves
gamers yet. David Hollands, DJ, talks gaming. "I've been in gaming since the beginning.... And now Nintendo has this
Electroplankton game. One of the great things I've found about working with Electroplankton in the studio is that
they're got really great sounds. I was able to make the track completely with just the sounds from the DS."

Reggie says: "We know more creativity means more fun. We also know more people means more fun. Especially if you're
connecting them around the world. .... This is the year that Nintendo players begin connecting with each other in a new
way: through WiFi Internet. ... Finding rivals with Nintendo WiFi connection occurs on two distinct levels." (via
peer-to-peer connections with known friends and via wireless hotspots)

"We expect the participation rate for Nintendo DS to reflect the clear majority of owners. We see no reason why that
participation rate can't reach as high as 90%. We're making access even more appealing because we're not assessing an
additional charge for wireless access. Free wireless hotspots outside the house, and free inside the house connection
via your existing wireless network."

They will showcase WiFi internet tomorrow on the show floor, including Mario Kart DS. Around the world 25 developers
are working on games for WiFi Internet play, including: Activision, Bandai, Capcom, EA, Konami, Activision, Ubisoft,
Square Enix, THQ.

Now they're showing off Mr. Miyamoto's latest pet project, Nintendogs. "It's taught the Japanese game world to sit
up and take notice. It remains the top-selling game franchise in Japan with more than 400,000 copies having sold
through in less than a month's time. As is always the case, hit software sells hardware. The launch of Nintendogs is
responsible for making Nintendo DS the best-selling system in Japan, outselling the PSP by three
times."

"Bark mode" allows players to search for play partners for their dog. The system "barks" indicating that someone
else in the WiFi network has the game. Turns out that it's Miyamoto's dog (what a surprise!). Miyamoto's dog appears to
be, uh, getting friendly with Mia. Hoots from the crowd. What is this, Married With Children?

It's Game Boy Micro! They just announced a new portable that's "just a hair bigger and about two thirds the weight of
an iPod mini. But it will play every Game Boy Advance game you own. It is not new technology, but it is a brand new
look. ... It has the best and brightest screen we've ever put in a hand held. No matter how tight your jeans, it'll fit
in your pocket." To market in Fall, to "the image conscious consumer". It is not a successor, but an "extension of
portable play".

Satoru Iwata Prez of Nintendo is on stage; the Revolution has been revealed, and he's making this clear that this one
is only a prototype. It's a small black box (we know) but he claims it will be even smaller in the final iteration, and
that it's backwards compatible. "Clearly the Revolution is by far the smallest console we have manufactured. In its
final form, it will be even smaller than this, about the size of 3 DVD cases stacked together. It will play either
horizontally or vertically."

He's just not giving details, not announcing new titles, and this is just a teaser. However, new versions of Mario and
Zelda are underway. Hopefully, we'll get to see some clips but no sign yet; this has been a very clip-free event so
far. Iwata expects the Revoltuion to help people make unique content like the DS. He hasn't hinted at what exactly will
allow that to happen. A wireless Final Fantasy is in devlopment.

Iwata says it will be easier, faster and cheaper to develop for the Revolution than any of the other consoles. He
wants to big idea to prevail over big budget. On masterpieces: "Not everyone sets out to create an expensive,
time-consuming masterpiece. Here, Revolution also earns its name. We are convinced that the Revolution will be most
developer-friendly. In this next generation, development costs will move easily into 8 figures. We have created a
solution to allow them to exercise creative freedom ... this is a system where a big idea can prevail over big
budgets."

"Backward compatibility: the disc drive will accept Gamecube games. We have designed Revolution to be a virtual
console, enabling it to download 20 years of Nintendo content. ... It is the gaming experience that will most separate
Revolution from its competitors." This is huge! It will have built in emulation for NES, SNES, N64, as well as being
able to read and play GameCube games! This completely trumps Sony's two-gen backwards compatitibility in the PS3.

All access gaming: more games, more players, more opportunities for developers, and more imagination in defining what
a game can be.

"It is my job to run a global company. Within my job what gives the most satisfaction is seeing someone pick up a
controller and finding surprise and delight. What touches their heart, touches my heart. ... The machine is just a
tool. The experience comes from the software. Those of you who consider the possibilities of combining ... wireless
connections, Internet connection and flash memory, can begin to make educated guesses on what games we might be
constructing."

"Next generation versions of Mario and Zelda are already underway. We also have big plans for Metroid in our
Revolution. The key here is not what you are playing, but how you will be playing. Revolution will [allow the creation]
of entirely new genres. ... We expect strong third-party content in both hemispheres. For example, Square Enix is
already working on a WiFi version of Final Phantasy ... for the Revolution."

Battalion Wars: "Combined action strategy warfare and third-person shooting in a novel way... by seamlessly blending
action-oriented gameplay with real time strategy ... you command entire squadrons with the touch of a button"

Killer 7: "Blood, swearing and mayhem. Graphical presentation that achieves the developer's dream of producing a work
of post-modern art."

The Mario soccer game has all the humor and cuteness you'd expect. Four new Mario titles this year, including Dance
Dance Revolution: Mario Mix. Oy!

Saving the best for last, eh? Here comes Link, and there go the strobe lights. We're feeling faint. The vid and
in-game play is intense, very dark, very unusual for Zelda. Link can transform into a werewolf? Yo, this game looks
astounding.

That's all folks. First impression of the event is that it delivered what it had to. We saw the Revoltion prototype,
upcoming GBA and DS titles and even had a surprise with the Micro (which looks sweet). The tone of the event was much
more low-key than we expected, with an audience that was much harder to please than the GDC crowd. The new hardware,
Zelda and Mario got the most applause, so that must be why they keep releasing the same properties over and over again
(well, that and the sales figures attached). Iwata wasn't quite as articulate as he was at GDC, which may be the result
of a press-only audience, but he still had the charm on.

Overall, Nintendo fans will be pleased, and Sony should be a little more worried that the Micro will be grabbing
bucks from our portable gaming budgets. The Revolution is a really unsexy device, all things considered???but it is a
prototype, and they did hammer home that they want input from their adoring public. This may also just prove that
Nintendo is serious when they say they don't care about the hardware as much as they do about the gaming experience.
They had to show something, and they did. It didn't hurt them, it didn't help them. As I said, they did what they had
to do. Now on to the expo floor where we can put some of this hype to the test.

They closed with "Beyond this year, a revolution awaits." We definitely agree, but will it be a revolution in gaming,
or all about the Nintendo Revolution?